A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 688 Selling [-] hectares of land

"Hou Junji has left Chang'an,"

"Go to West Illinois,"

East Palace,

The emperor and Wu Huaiyu drank tea under the sweet-scented osmanthus tree, and there were sweet-scented osmanthus cakes made from this year's new sweet-scented osmanthus on the table.

The prince accompanied him.

Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival on August [-]th. Today, Hou Jun will leave Chang'an for the Western Regions.

One dynasty played nine times in the sky, and eight thousand on Chaozhou Road in the evening.

The emperor's treatment of Lao Hou this time was really swift and severe, but Wu Huaiyu could see that the emperor still loved this loyal and supportive partner.
This time Hou Junji reported Wu Huaiyu for treason. This was no small matter. If he was really investigated carefully, his fate would be much worse than this.

After the emperor reacted urgently, he directly asked Zhang Anan to send Hou Junji all the way from Wude Palace to Weiqiao, and sent him to the Western Regions without even returning home. He also did not want the matter to escalate further.

"Prime Minister Hou and I have some conflicts. This matter may be just a misunderstanding. I don't believe that Prime Minister Hou will deliberately frame this. It must be that Prime Minister Hou has been deceived by the villains around him.
It would be good if the misunderstanding is clarified. Hou Xiang is still loyal to His Majesty, but suddenly going to the Western Regions is a bit overkill. "

Wu Huaiyu expressed his attitude. He had no intention of adding insult to injury and would not continue to delve deeper. He was willing to stop here.

This attitude made Li Shimin very satisfied.
The emperor even personally refilled Huaiyu's cup of tea, which was made of Mongolian stone flower dragon group. The prince acted as a tea-making boy, quietly making roasted tea, tencha, boiled water, sencha, salt, ginger, orange peel, etc. The cup of tea given to the emperor was still Specially added sugar and fresh milk.

"I am very disappointed by Hou Junji, who actually followed Yu Chigong's old path,"

Wu Huaiyu held the tea cup but did not answer.

If you don't add insult to injury at this time, you will gain more points in the emperor's heart.

While drinking tea, the emperor didn't want to talk about Hou Junji anymore. He could only say that this time Hou Junji really made the emperor dissatisfied. If he said that he had a fight with Su Lie before, it made the emperor unhappy, and Hou Junji asked to lead troops to the west. , in fact, the emperor felt even more disappointed.

Hou Junji exposed serious shortcomings in the overall situation. He was short-sighted and had no overall view.
This time Hou Junji reported Wu Huaiyu's rebellion, which made the emperor feel more and more that Hou Junji was not suitable to stay in the central government any longer. His demotion to the Western Regions as deputy governor was already a serious warning.
It still leaves a glimmer of opportunity. It depends on whether Hou Junji can train himself and improve his structure in the next few years.If he still can't keep up, then he may be like Yu Chigong. No matter how high he is, it will be difficult for him to enter the center again.

The emperor turned to talk to the emperor about the Yuyingtang, Shantang, Beitianfang, Huimin Pharmacy, Barefoot Doctor and Technical School.
"Although I went to Zhongnan Mountain to practice Taoism with the old immortal when I was nine years old, the old immortal also taught me to read the classics of Confucianism and Buddhism, to understand the teachings of the three schools, and to understand the thoughts of the sages.

The ancient Confucian sages said that one should cultivate one's moral character, harmonize one's family, govern the country, and bring peace to the world. He said that if you are poor, you can only be good for yourself, and if you are strong, you can help the world. I think this is the most reasonable.

With great power comes great responsibility.

Whether Bingyutang makes wine and sells wine, or Qianjintang sells medicines, these shops and workshops are running well and making money. In addition to paying taxes to the court and paying wages to employees, they should also use some of their earnings. money to repay the society.

Just like the imperial court collects taxes, it also takes them from the people and uses them for the people.

The Wu family's commercial shops should do the same, using part of their profits to repay the society for charity, building roads and bridges, caring for the orphans, helping the elderly, and helping the needy. "

With these words, the situation suddenly enlarged.

Li Shimin nodded repeatedly after hearing this.

"A saint is a thief, and businessmen cannot just talk about business and pursue profit. They must still shoulder their social responsibilities. Businessmen and businessmen are also willing to contribute a small amount to the saint's rule of Zhenguan."

"If everyone had Qingyang's awakening, all dynasties would not have suppressed industry and commerce and cracked down on low-income industries." Li Shimin sighed,

The vast majority of businessmen only know how to blindly pursue profits, and they do not hesitate to sell off goods and speculate on hoarding. There are also many who make disaster fortunes and war fortunes, and engage in various types of loan sharking.

As a result, there has been a consensus that no businessman can be corrupted, and all dynasties have carefully locked businessmen in cages, not daring to let them go and let them develop.

"It costs a lot to adopt so many abandoned babies and orphans, and even fund the relief of orphans, widows, and disabled people, right?" Li Shimin asked.

"Do your best. I have made suggestions for the estates, shops, and even some partnership properties under the Wu family's name. I hope that part of the net profits can be used to invest in charity and fulfill my own responsibility and conscience. ,

If you earn more, invest more, if you earn less, invest less. The most important thing is to be able to persist for a long time. "

Li Shimin is more concerned about the future arrangements for those orphans.

Wu Huaiyu also answered that these people are still good people, but now they are temporarily raised and taken care of by the Wu family. When they are ten years old, they will be arranged to be apprentices in the merchant's workshop, which can be regarded as self-reliance and learning skills.When they are older and have the ability to make a living, they can choose whether to continue to be employed by shops to make money, or to find other jobs.

"It is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish. I also hope that these lonely and helpless people will be able to make a living and settle down when they grow up."

Li Shimin was a little surprised. The Wu family had invested so much and basically asked for nothing in return.

"Your Majesty, these are good deeds done by the trading company, and good deeds do not expect rewards."

"I believe it," Li Shimin handed Huaiyu another piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake, "I heard that your Wu family's shops are all well-run and good at making money, but your Wu's shop is also very generous to the shopkeepers. Not only do they pay wages It’s higher, and there are even dividends on shares.
Your Wu family's shops have a very good reputation, and they are even rare ones that do not lend money at usury. It is extremely difficult to do this.

I believe in the good deeds you are doing now,"

The prince could not help but say, "It would be great if all the industries and commerce in the world were like this."

"Your Highness, doing good deeds must be voluntary and cannot be forced or morally kidnapped. For industry and commerce, the most important thing is to enable them to operate in compliance with the law, pay taxes in accordance with the law, and treat their employees preferentially. If these points are achieved, To the imperial court, they are already benevolent businessmen and worthy of commendation."

Li Shimin nodded, this view was similar to his,
Wu Huaiyu could always speak to his heart,
Heroes see the same thing.

"This time Sanyuan County cleared the land, and finally found more than 13 acres of hidden land. I was really surprised,"

Li Shimin changed the topic and talked about acres of land and land restrictions.

After reading Wei Zheng's land restriction order, Li Shimin felt that it made some sense, but was too idealistic and difficult to implement. He wanted to ask Wu Huaiyu what he thought about it. "Field limits have been imposed in all dynasties, but it has been difficult to truly limit land annexation. I feel that Wei Shizhong's land limit law has little practicality."

"What can you do?"

Wu Huaiyu shook his head.

"I don't have any good ideas. If the court takes action seriously, it may cause great turmoil," he reminded the emperor truthfully. Now the court has just begun to trial the new two-tax law, which has already touched many interests of the nobles and powerful people.

That is to say, the emperor's prestige is now high, the Tang Dynasty is stable both inside and outside, and the situation is stable. Therefore, although there are some dissatisfaction with this, no one dares to obstruct and resist because of this.

But there is a degree to this kind of thing,
The two tax laws are being reformed over there, and land is restricted here, so going too far is not enough.

"I remember that you seem to have several thousand hectares of land, right?" Li Shimin asked.

Wu Huaiyu nodded. He heard the hidden meaning behind the emperor's words. Is it because you oppose the restriction of land because you have too much land?

"You should be very clear about the dangers of land annexation. If the court allows land annexation, the dynasty will inevitably weaken. I know the road ahead will be thorny, but I have to move forward."

The emperor said this, so Wu Huaiyu had no choice but to offer some suggestions.

“Land sales must be subject to an official deed, and [-]% of the buyer’s deed tax is levied.”

"Reiterate that according to status and grade, slaves are owned and slaves must be bought and sold by official deeds, and [-]% of the buyer's deed tax is levied."

“The state enacts laws to grant client status to proletarians such as servants, guest girls, tenants, servants, etc., so that they can become good people of the country, have independent legal status, provide protection, and reduce their personal dependence on the landlord.”

"Those who already owned excess land in the past can be put on hold, but in the future, land must be occupied strictly according to status and grade, and excess land must not be occupied at will. Or, the border states have wide rural land, and land reclamation is not subject to restrictions."

"In the future, when the time comes, we can also clean up all over-occupations or force them to be resold, but we will impose a progressive tax rate on the excess."

"If you select land for government soldiers, honorary officers and other fields, the court has the right to expropriate the over-occupied fields and compensate them at market prices."

Wu Huaiyu made many suggestions in succession. Of course, some of them can be implemented now, such as imposing deed taxes on land and slave sales.
For example, legislation protects the rights and interests of tenants, such as limiting land rent and interest.

There are also some that are temporarily unoperable and are purely for the purpose of restoring the emperor, such as the restriction of slaves and land, the progressive tax system for excess land occupation, and the clearing of excess land, etc.

When Li Shimin heard this, he immediately recognized the good and the bad. It had to be said that compared with Wei Zheng's wishful thinking, at least some of Wu Huaiyu's provisions could still be implemented, and even some restrictions on mergers could be implemented.

"You can write a detailed memorial on these later,"

Wu Huaiyu knew that the emperor must have wanted to show it to the ministers for viewing and discussion.
When Huaiyu said goodbye and left the palace, Li Shimin rewarded him with a box of sweet-scented osmanthus cake and a box of Mengding stone flower dragon group tea.

"You bought thousands of hectares of land in a few years. It's amazing. It's better not to buy so much land in the future. It's quite hard for you to buy so much land and buy slaves everywhere."

Wu Huaiyu quickly agreed, the emperor doesn't really feel sorry for your hard work, this is a kind warning.

In a few years, thousands of hectares of land were acquired, which was indeed a bit fierce. Although most of the land was borderland, the quantity was there.

If your dignified prime minister takes the lead in annexing land, how can we discuss land restrictions?
"I plan to sell at least [-] hectares of land within two or three years."

Li Shimin was surprised, then smiled in approval.

After leaving the palace, he did not stay in Chang'an anymore and returned directly to Longqiao. His main errand now is to try out the new method in Sanyuan.

When I got home, I chatted with my wives and concubines about what happened in Chang'an during dinner, including the fact that Hou Junji was driven to the Western Regions without even spending the Autumn Festival in Beijing, and that he promised to sell three thousand hectares of land to the emperor.

"I don't agree." Fan Xuanfu objected excitedly.

Even Princess Yang Muyun of Huainan was surprised, "If the imperial court really wants to restrict land, it is impossible to attack Alang, so why take the initiative to sell the land?"

"Actually, you don't have to worry, there's something else going on."

The so-called inside story is that Wu Huaiyu planned to sell the [-] hectares of land in the frontier area currently under his name, mostly newly reclaimed wasteland, to some trading houses to build farmland for Kaizhong merchants, who would grow grain in exchange for salt from Kaizhong.

Of course, these trading firms sold to are actually the Wu family's trading firms.

Left hand to right hand.

But in this way, those fields changed from Wu Huaiyu's private land to the frontier merchant farmland of the trading company, which was under the name of the trading company.

After a while, it turned out that the actual owner was still Wu Huaiyu, but 30 acres of land in Wu Huaiyu's name was immediately reduced.

"Why bother with so much effort?" Mother Lu was puzzled.

Chen Runniang was worried, "If the court wants to impose a deed tax of 30% on 30 acres of land, how much will it cost? Assuming one hundred yuan per mu, the transaction volume of [-] acres is [-] yuan, and [-]% of the deed tax , that’s also one thousand five hundred strings.”

"Actually, you don't have to worry about this. Now the imperial court has a policy to recruit merchants to reclaim wasteland for merchant villages in the border areas. There are many preferential policies. For example, the land reclamation merchant villages are tax-free for several years, and the deed tax can also be exempted.
After it is converted into a commercial village, local taxes, free warehouse grain, etc. will be reduced and exempted in the future. "

Although Wu Huaiyu's purpose is not to pay less taxes, it doesn't matter if it is reasonable and legal.

"If the land is transferred to the name of the trading company, will there be any hidden dangers in the future?" Fan Xuanfu still felt that this operation was a bit inappropriate.

"They are all land along the border. The amount sounds scary, but in fact it is neither valuable nor easy to manage. If it is transferred to the name of a trading company, our family will not have much land left."

The emperor bluntly said that he had bought too much land in the past few years, so Wu Huaiyu had to show something.

(End of this chapter)